Hopefuls give responses to queries on current events

Denton
City Council hopefuls sparred in their last forum of the political season at an
event hosted Thursday night by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.

The event
was recorded for Denton Community TV, but station operators on Friday had not
yet announced the broadcast schedule. This is the second candidate forum that
has been recorded for DCTV, which is broadcast on Charter Channel 25 and
Verizon Channel 39.

The
league is preparing its voters guide and announced that it will post the guide
online this weekend. Other information related to the May 11 election is also
available on the league’s website, www.lwvdenton.org.

Early
voting begins Monday. A list of early voting times and locations is available
on the county elections website, http://elections.dentoncounty.com.

Three of
the city’s four council seats have a full slate of candidates. Incumbents Dalton
Gregory and Jim Engelbrecht are running for their third and final terms in
District 2 and District 3, respectively. Alfredo F. Sanchez and Travis Trawick
are challenging Gregory, although Trawick has stopped actively campaigning and
was absent from the forum. Engelbrecht also has two challengers — Brendan
Carroll and Griffen Rice. Joey Hawkins and Phil Kregel have squared off to
replace Chris Watts in District 4.

Kevin
Roden, the incumbent in District 1, drew no opponent in his bid for a second
term. He attended the forum but did not participate.

Moderator
Linnie McAdams fielded questions written by some of the 30 or so people who
also attended a forum with the school board candidates earlier Thursday night.
Most of the questions covered similar ground as previous City Council candidate
forums, including ferreting out the candidates’ top priorities and their views
on Denton’s urbanization. Others asked about the candidates’ views on
public-private partnership for the convention center and the increase in the
City Council’s closed sessions.

But
recent headlines recast one of the persistent questions: What’s the best way to
regulate natural gas drilling and production in the city to protect people?

Emotions
have been running high since Eagleridge Operating lost control of the Smith
Yorlum No. 7 well in the early hours of April 19. Homes surrounding the well
were evacuated, but no injuries were reported. A preliminary report with the
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shows the operator claimed an “emissions
event” with the incident, estimating 59 pounds of benzene along with other
hazardous air pollutants were released between 8 a.m. and 3:39 p.m. when the
well was capped by well-control specialists that day.

The
emergency came two days after a fertilizer plant exploded in West, killing 14
people, including 10 volunteer firefighters, burning a school and destroying or
damaging buildings over a 35-block area.

Residents
wanted to know whether the candidates felt the city was able to do what it
could to protect residents from industrial activities so close in. All the
candidates expressed varying degrees of frustration with the state’s
interference with home rule.

Rice said
that the city needs the autonomy to make tougher rules that protect residents
without the state’s interference. He wondered whether Friday’s emergency called
for the operator’s permit to be reviewed or revoked.

Carroll
said the city’s comparative silence — both Carroll and other residents have
complained that the city isn’t answering e-mails and calls with questions —
after the incident hasn’t helped.

“I’m not
sure we have a grasp of what we need to do,” Carroll said.

Hawkins
questioned whether operators could be made to reapply for permits after
problems emerge. He didn’t understand why the industry’s trucks weren’t
labeled, given what was required by the health department visiting his bagel
and coffee shops.

“My spray
bottles have to be labeled — this doesn’t make sense,” Hawkins said.

Kregel
called on residents to be in contact with state representatives, since it was a
hot topic in the Legislature right now.

“As a
community, we need to be louder,” Kregel said.

He called
for operators to follow rules already on the books, and those charged with
enforcing the rules to be held accountable by the City Council.

Gregory
said he feels frustrated by the whole thing, and particularly how the city has
been limited by a state Legislature that is friendly to oil and gas. But he
underscored that the city can, and has, done a lot with its zoning powers, including
increasing setbacks and defining many more protected uses.

Sanchez
echoed the frustration with state legislators, saying that politicians have
been “bought off.”

“We need
to start voting for people who will represent us,” Sanchez said. “It is our
health and our kids that’s at stake.”

Engelbrecht
said oil and gas production is the only industrial activity Texas allows to
come into neighborhoods.

“We are
under siege more than we have ever been at the state,” Engelbrecht said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at
940-566-6881 and via Twitter at @phwolfeDRC.

Comments

DentonRC.com is now using Facebook Comments. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then add your comment below. Your comment is subject to Facebook's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service on data use. If you don't want your comment to appear on Facebook, uncheck the 'Post to Facebook' box. To find out more, read the FAQ .